ISPs Say They Can’t Expand Broadband Without More Money

Apparently ISPs have been recently saying that they can’t expand broadband without more government handouts.

Broadband providers have spent years lobbying against utility-style regulations that protect consumers from high prices and bad service.

But now, broadband lobby groups are arguing that Internet service is similar to utilities such as electricity, gas distribution, roads, and water and sewer networks. In the providers’ view, the essential nature of broadband doesn’t require more regulation to protect consumers. Instead, they argue that broadband’s utility-like status is reason for the government to give ISPs more money.

Of course, the biggest issue with this is that the government (read: American taxpayers) have already given ISPs US$400 billion dollars to expand fiber optic networks across the country. The article’s header says it best: ISPs want benefits but not responsibilities.

In my town there was a push to expand fiber to every house. The local City would run all of the fiber and lease it out to every ISP to use.

Unfortunately that effort and many others like it were blocked by the monopoly ISP’s lobbyists in the Statehouse getting our state flunkies to believe that cities running infrastructure available to all is anti-competitive and anti-capitalist.

So our city effort to introduce more competition was successfully blocked at the State House.